- The NSF has awarded $1.7 million to SDSC and ASU for the creation of an online LIDAR data website.
- The goal is to make access to LIDAR data much easier for end users.
- This is a similar mission to the USGS CLICK site and I hope the 2 groups will work together.
The US National Science Foundation, NSF has awarded Arizona State University and the San Diego Supercomputer Center – SDSC, $1.7 million to operate an internet-based national data facility for high-resolution topographic data acquired with LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology. The facility will also provide online processing tools and act as a community repository for information, software and training materials.
It’s a 3 year project based on SDSC’s OpenTopography portal, which will be scaled up to a national facility to make topography data available in multiple formats. This includes “raw” LiDAR point cloud data, standard LiDAR-derived digital elevation models, and easily accessible Google Earth products to better serve LiDAR users at various levels of expertise.
This is an important project that has the potential to make LIDAR data much more available to the public. I trust that there will be coordination with the USGS CLICK project as it seems they have similar goals.
This post was written by Gene V. Roe
